The border crossing had, thankfully, been uneventful. What looked like two priests and a nun in a church van apparently seemed innocuous enough to prevent close scrutiny, or worse, search. There had been one tense moment when one of the border police had stared at Heinkel, possibly trying to determine her gender, then probably given up. Yumiko couldn't really blame him, she'd been similarly confused the first time she'd seen the androgyne.
"Are we getting close?" She asked Father Green after some time had passed, trying to decide if it was time to rouse Yumie.
"Couple more miles - y'all gettin' antsy or something?"
"No," she lied. Her stomach did its usual sinking as she started to call to her other half.
"How did you learn the pagans' location, Father Green?" Heinkel inquired, lightly patting herself down, making sure things were in place under her coat. She'd have to lose it before the assault began. It would be just too damn hot to allow her to be effective.
"One of the parishioners, neighborhood watch type fellow, tried staking out a church that hadn't been hit, yet. One night he got lucky."
"And he followed them all the way here?" Heinkel raised a brow. She looked back at Yumiko, but she wasn't paying attention.
"Went a slightly different route as I recall, but yep..." Father Green's fingers drummed the dashboard as he hummed softly.
"He didn't think to call the police?"
"Said they wouldn't go 'cross the border; so he thought he should do it. Kinda reckless, now that I think about it."
"And you're sure his information was right, that he wasn't lying?" The thought of shooting up the wrong people wasn't particularly appealing.
"Look Sister, uh, Wulf, he's one of the most honest people I know, reckless, but honest. Hey, check it out, we're almost there!"
Sister Wulf stared at him for a few more moments before looking at Yumiko again. Her fingers were playing with her cross as she whispered something, eyes lowered. She'd seen her partner do this on occasion before changing. Heinkel had asked her, once, what she prayed for. The answer had been that it was for several things, that Yumie would only kill those truly deserving, for the souls of those she did, for Heinkel's soul and safety, for Yumie's soul (if she had one), and for her own, for setting Yumie free. Heinkel had questioned why Yumiko hadn't bothered including her own safety on the list. She'd never really answered.
Father Green parked the van on the side of the degraded road. "Seeing as you ladies don't seem to have come here for the sake of mediation, I'll just be waitin' here."
"That would be the best idea," Heinkel told him.
He pointed ahead. "See that house with the orangey roof? That's it."
Heinkel took stock of the dwelling. From here, she couldn't see any signs of use.
"Are you sure?"
"As I am of Christ in Heaven."
"Right, then. Yumiko! It's time."
Yumiko glanced at her and nodded. She turned to the priest. "Father Green, I'm going to leave my glasses in here, could you please make sure nothing happens to them?"
Father Green looked perplexed. "Sure, but don't you need them to see?"
"No," she replied, her fingers on the edges of the frames. "That's not what I need them for." She removed the glasses.
The transformation was as seamless as it was jarring. While features of the face had not changed, the difference in expression might have temporarily fooled the onlooker into thinking otherwise. Yumie grinned at Heinkel and asked, "so, who are we here for?"
As Heinkel informed her of the circumstances, Yumie handed the confused priest the glasses and yanked off the veil. She shook out her hair and looked around for her sword. Heinkel shrugged out of her coat while she spoke and replaced her sunglasses. Yumie's smile grew wider as she located her weapon. After Heinkel had finished filling her in, Yumie remarked, "in other words, the usual."
"Pretty much," her partner agreed as she reached for the door handle. "Ready?"
"Always," Yumie answered, taking the katana from its saya.
"Then let's do this."
As she and Yumie stepped out the vehicle, Heinkel looked at Father Green once more. "Hopefully, this won't take very long."
"Good luck to you two, Sisters," he told them with a smile. "God bless you."
"Danke."
They walked toward the house. "We should expect guns, with that one priest getting shot," Yumie said, distaste coloring the last half of the sentence.
Heinkel nodded. "I'll be ahead of you."
"Any clue how many?"
"Nein."
"I guess there will be surprises for both sides, then." Yumie said. "The Communists were too easy, anyway."
They both grew quiet as they walked the last yards to the house, and Heinkel drew a Desert Eagle. The windows appeared mostly boarded up, but there were gaps between the boards that were large enough to have let anyone inside see their approach. Unfortunately, going in plain sight seemed to be their only option. Heinkel grabbed the door handle and nodded once before checking if it was locked.
She never found out the answer to that question.
A shot exploded from the other side of the door, inches from Heinkel's head. She jumped back, grabbed her second gun, and opened fire as the door flew open. Her bullets took down the first man that came through, and the second. The third was relieved of his head, and most of his shoulder area, by Yumie's blade.
Things became quiet again, no one else leaving the house. An accented male voice yelled from one of the windows. "You're the Vatican bitches, right?"
"That's us, heathen scum," Yumie retorted.
Heinkel addressed the speaker. "If you bring out what you've stolen, we'll take it and go. No one else will die," she told him, lying.
In response, shots were fired from another window. The sisters rushed for the open door, but it was shut with a slam. "Pathetic cowards," Yumie snarled as the katana split the door. The part still on hinges swung inward, the other half simply fell. She and Heinkel entered the building.
Heinkel tried to make a quick count of exactly how many people were in the room. She thought seven, but it was chaos. Stunned momentarily by the sisters' unorthodox entrance, the gang soon regained their senses and regrouped, attacking from either side of the duo. Yumie appeared utterly unfazed, charging into the fray. The first person to point a gun at her lost his lower arm, then his head.
The familiar sounds of shouts and gunshot filled Heinkel's ears as she pulled her body out of the path of a bullet. She put a round in the shooter's head while muttering "Amen," then turned her attention toward the doorway, where two women and a man were headed. She took out one woman, and then she was distracted by a man coming at her side with a knife. He received a shot in the chest for his troubles. Heinkel looked back toward the doorway but the deserters were gone.
Turning in Yumie's direction, she watched her partner dance with another knife user. He moved in an aggressive circle around her, occasionally trying to lunge ahead. Yumie would smirk, swing her sword heavily, and he'd jerk back. Heinkel realized Yumie was playing with him. "Hurry up!" She demanded, "We don't want the other two to get away."
Yumie gave her a disappointed look and then switched back to her usual speed the next time the man tried to slash her. The katana entered his body through his collarbone and exited through the opposite side of his rib cage in a spray of red. Yumie stepped over the pieces of the man as she moved toward the exit.
"Amateurs," she remarked, heading out the door. "I'd hoped for more."
As she stepped forward, a bullet grazed her arm. Yumie growled and swung out, catching the source with the long blade and halving it. The woman's body fell apart.
Heinkel gave Yumie a concerned glance. "You alright?"
"I'm fine. It's nothing," she answered, even as she winced.
"You asked for more." Her eyes moved over the yard in front of the house. "I didn't hear a car. He couldn't have gotten far."
The two searched the house, and the back and sides, but they couldn't find a trace of the man, nor any a sign of the stolen property. Then, Yumie had a thought. "Wait, what if he saw the van and went to it?"
Heinkel looked disturbed, "Father Green. Let's go!"
They ran back to the van. As they approached, they heard a voice they recognized as the one from the window coming from behind the vehicle. They sped up as he began to shout.
"Just two nuns, you said! Harmless! Harmless, my ass. They wiped out my people like they were nothing! This is all your fault! This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't killed that priest!"
"I had to! He recognized me!"
The sisters stopped short as they realized that the second speaker was the man who'd driven them here. It was Father Green. They exchanged shocked glances and slowed, listening to the conversation as the father continued.
"Don't blame me because your people couldn't handle two girls."
"No one's come, they must have been killed. Because of those 'two girls', my whole crew is dead!"
Heinkel leaned in toward Yumie as they reached the van. "I'll go one side," she whispered, "you take the other."
Yumie nodded and they split up.
"Listen, partner," Father Green told the man, "I'd settle down if I were you."
"I will not settle down. This is your fault and I -" he was cut off by a gunshot.
Yumie came around the van in time to see Father Green shoot his partner a second time. He looked up and smiled. "Hello there, little lady. Have fun?"
"Tons," she answered, advancing toward him, "and I'm about to have more, disgusting traitor."
Father Green leveled his revolver at her. "You're gonna stay right there. And, if you try to run, I've got six little friends and they can all run faster than you can." She flicked her wrist underhand as she lunged forward, swatting the gun out his hand with the flat part of the sword. "Christ, girl! How'd you do that?"
She smirked as she moved closer, "ancient Chinese secret. You should be thankful your hand wasn't still attached."
"It's wrong to take the Lord's name in vain," Heinkel said from behind him. "It's also wrong to lie and steal from your own people. Wouldn't you agree, Yumie?"
"Most definitely," she replied, raising the sword. "Greed is a deadly sin. You should have known that, Father." She pronounced his title like an insult as she prepared to take off his head. He dropped to his knees and shrieked.
"Wait, Yumie!" Heinkel exclaimed, "hold on!"
"But why?"
Heinkel put a finger to her lips, asking for silence while she pointed at the father.
It was then that Yumie heard the noise coming from the priest's pocket. She leaned forward threateningly and sneered. "Answer the phone."
Father Green's hand shook as it took the cell phone from his pocket. He pressed the talk button with a trembling finger and held the phone to his face. "H-hello? The people from the Vatican? Uh, look, Bishop, this isn't a very good time."
"Bishop? Give me that!" Heinkel ordered him, grabbing the phone out of the priest's hand. "Hello, Bishop Landry? This is Sister Heinkel Wulf. I'm from the Vatican. Guten tag . . . Yes . . . No. . . . Listen, Bishop, I have some disturbing news about Father Green."
Yumie smiled as she continued to hold the sword on the father.
"Well, I think it might be better explained in person . . . Where are we? We're in Mexico . . . Yes, I did say Mexico . . . Well, you'd really be better off asking Father Green that. I need to go now. We'll be meeting soon."
She hung up the phone. "It seems you're in a lot of trouble, Father Green, but I'm sure you were already aware of that."
"What are you going to do with me?" He asked, fear in his voice.
"We're going to put you in the van and take you back to the states," Heinkel told him, "where you can tell the good bishop everything yourself."
Yumie frowned. "We're not going to kill him?"
"No, not unless the bishop wants us to."
The corners of Yumie's mouth turned up a bit as a thought struck her. "Can we at least tie him up?"
